How to Play King of New York: A Simple Guide for Beginners
Are you in search of a thrilling and strategic board game to challenge your friends with? King of New York may just be what you're looking for. It's a game that transports you into a world of battling monsters, intent on taking control of the Big Apple. If you're wondering how to play this exciting game, don't worry, we have you covered. Let's take a journey together to learn the rules and strategies that will make you the ultimate King of New York.
Firstly, it's essential to understand the basic objective of the game. The goal of King of New York is to either be the last monster standing or to be the first to earn 20 victory points.
Setting Up The Game
The game board is essentially a representation of New York City's five boroughs: Staten Island, Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and The Bronx. To start, each player chooses their favorite monster and gets the corresponding Monster board and figure. Your Monster board is crucial; it’s the tracker for your health and victory points. Set your health at 10 and your victory points at zero at the beginning. This is your starting point, and from here, you embark on your journey to conquer the city.
The game features a deck of cards that's shuffled and laid out next to the board. Three of these cards will always be visible and up for grabs, offering special powers that you can purchase during the game to boost your monster's capabilities.
Understanding Game Pieces
The game utilizes three key types of units: Monsters, Buildings, and Units. Understanding these is fundamental to your game strategy.
1. Monsters: These are the primary characters that you and your friends will control. Each has its own quirky identity and represents your stake in the game.
2. Buildings: Populate every borough with three stacks of buildings at the start of the game. These structures can be obliterated by your monster to gain valuable rewards, and in the process, they may morph into units.
3. Units: When buildings crumble, they turn into units, which essentially act as a mini adversary for your monster. They add an extra layer of complexity and thrill to the game.
Gameplay Overview
Each player's turn consists of four steps: rolling and re-rolling the dice, resolving the dice, buying cards, and ending the turn.
Step 1: Rolling and Re-rolling Dice
King of New York uses six special dice with various symbols. Each symbol has a different effect:
Attack: This symbol lets your monster attack other monsters.
Destruction: Allows you to destroy buildings or defeat units.
Energy: Gathers energy cubes, the game's currency used to purchase power cards.
Heal: This lets your monster recover health points.
Ouch: Causes the military to attack your monster.
Celebrity: This only applies if you roll three or more and makes your monster a superstar, allowing you to collect victory points.
During your turn, you roll all six dice. You can then decide to keep as many dice as you like and re-roll the rest. You can do this twice, giving you a maximum of three rolls per turn.
Step 2: Resolving Dice
After deciding on your final dice, it's time to resolve their effects. You can do this in any order.
Step 3: Buying Cards
Throughout your turn, you can exchange your hard-earned energy cubes to buy power cards. These cards can level up your monster with new abilities or even directly provide victory points. After a card has been purchased, remember to replace it with a new one from the deck, refreshing the options for the next player.
Step 4: Ending Your Turn
Finally, once you've resolved your dice and bought any cards, your turn ends. It's now the next player's turn.
Winning the Game
As stated earlier, there are two ways to win King of New York:
Be the last monster standing: If your monster is the only one left with any health points, you win!
Be the first to reach 20 victory points: This can be achieved by various means, such as destroying buildings, defeating units, becoming the superstar, or using special power cards.
And that's it! That's how you play King of New York. It's a game that offers a unique blend of strategy, luck, and thematic immersion. So, gather your friends, pick your monsters, and get ready to battle for supremacy in the City That Never Sleeps. Good luck on your path to becoming the King of New York!
